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An announcment was made yesterday to the Florida legislature that is similar to Arizona’s immigration law by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. McCollum has made a proposal a “stronger,” “tougher” and “fairer” bill that will give law enforcement the right to use “reasonable suspicion” to detain individuals that they believe are in the U.S. illegally. There are 2 weeks left in the republican primary elections and McCollum is trailing in the polls as he comes out with this proposal.

Attorney General Bill McCollum’s bill proposal also makes room for defendeant’s immigration status to be held in question when bond maounts are being set and for higher level charges to be brought against illegal immigrants by prosecuters.
A major point of differentiation from Arizona’s immigration law, is that citizens would NOT have the authority to sue law enforcement agencies for failing to enforce the law. Rather, this would be the responsibility of the Attorney General’s office. A couple of other points are that the bill would:
• make it illegal to employ immigrants and a violation of Florida criminal law that could require an attorney to defend.
• businesses would have to use the Federal E-Verify program prior to hiring anyone
• make it a specific point to prohibit racial profiling.

As can be expected, Immigrant advocacy groups already chimed in about the bill. The executive director of Florida Immigrant Advocacy center in Miami has already criticized the bill in a statement that said the passing of such a bill would augment the current confusion and chaos in the system.